Publications & Reports

Publications & Reports

MULTIPLE HERITAGE CONFERENCE

Over 50 young people of multiple heritage attended the event held at The Peepul Centre in Leicester
on 7 March 2007. It brought together young people aged between 13 – 19 years from five different
secondary schools and colleges in Leicester City.
The aims of the conference were as follows:-

To create a platform for the opinions of multiple heritage young people to be voiced and
heard.

To explore issues and agendas related to young people of multiple heritage.

To make recommendations to schools, local authority services and government on multiple
heritage issues.

To bring together a group of multiple heritage young people in one space where they could
share experiences (positive and negative) and ideas in a relaxed but purposeful atmosphere.

FAITH, INTERFAITH AND COHESION:
THE EDUCATION DIMENSION

This project was originally undertaken during the spring of 2006 and was funded by the Cohesion and Faith Unit of the Department for Communities and Local Government. Executive control was undertaken by the Institute of Community Cohesion (ICoCo). Leicester City's School Development Support Agency (SDSA) managed and wrote the report on behalf of the ICoCo. As well as a core team of co-workers, the SDSA commissioned several pieces of discrete research which fed into the overarching theme of faith, interfaith and cohesion.

The foundation discussed the potential of updating the reprt to take account of the many changes of government policy undertaken since the Conservative/Liberal Democratic government took office in 2010 but decided that a major re-wrte at this stage would serve little purpose, other than to provide an update. The main findings, the principles and practices outlined stand the test of time and are as valuable now as they were in 2006.

SCHOOLS WITH SOUL: A NEW APPROACH TO SPIRITUAL, MORAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL EDUCATION

This report marks the conclusion of the first RSA Investigate-Ed, a series of investigations on key education issues. These aim to propose new ideas for policy and practice in response to emerging evidence and changing contexts, as well as support the early development of practical partnerships and projects. Speedier than a commission approach, but more in-depth than a traditional seminar, these investigations will give policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders structured spaces to diagnose problems and generate solutions.

THE RELIGIOUS LITERACY AND SPIRITUALITY CONFERENCE

Sometimes, just sometimes, you organise a conference and receive rave reviews from the majority of participants. The Christian Muslim Forum's (CMF) conference on Religious Literacy and Spirituality held at Westminster Abbey on the 14th March 2013 achieved those dizzy heights. Glowing terms like, 'fantastic', 'excellent,' and 'inspirational' were typical of a range of reflective, often detailed and sometimes critical evaluations.

SACRED SPACES PROJECT

It is unusual, but not unprecedented, that a project based in the Supplementary Sector of Education can steal an innovative pedagogic march on their more illustrious and better funded colleagues in mainstream schools. The Sacred Spaces Project achieved just this. Funded by Creativity, Culture and Education, CCE2, supported in kind by the FSTC3, and independently evaluated by the Office of Public Management4, the project ran over a nine month period in 2011. This article describes that highly ambitious project. It offers an overarching narrative, outlines its objectives, unpacks the underpinning processes and highlights the project's outcomes.

MENDING BROKEN BRITAIN? EDUCATION'S RESPONSE

Maurice Irfan Coles

The report, Mending Broken Britain? Education's Response, chronicles the processes, content and outcomes of a remarkable conference held at Birmingham City University in late February 2012. In addition, more recent developments have been included, keeping in mind the spirit and outcomes of the conference itself. Surprisingly it appears to be the only national conference that brought together a wide range of teachers and other professionals who believed that education services must articulate a clear role in building a cohesive society and who wanted to prevent a reoccurrence of those fateful and anarchic events of the four days of riots in August 2011. The overarching aims of the conference were to:

Offer education's take on the factors which had contributed to such a breakdown of order

Discuss how the sector might best respond so that the possibility of recurrence was minimised

Examine the possible curriculum responses both in general and subject specific terms

THE CREAM REPORT

A research report prepared by the School Development Support Agency to identify the curriculum potential to reflect the experiences of African caribbean and muslim pupils supported by the department for Education and Skills
This report consists of two related but discrete parts:

The first, Methodology, Main Findings and Future Directions, summarises the how, the what and the maybes of the project.

The second, the Audit and the Materials' outlines areas that lend themselves directly or potentially to reflecting the experience of the target groups, and offers lists of possible resources and practices that could support teachers.

Members of the project team, and others who were commissioned to undertake particular subject-based aspects, conducted what is probably the most extensive materials search ever undertaken with reference to the report focus groups.
Download the Cream Report (pdf)